Author: Heavy Feather

“Proof in the Blood,” a short story by Michael Allen Rose for Haunted Passages

They say there’s proof in the blood, that something can be in it that you didn’t put there and there’s nothing you can do to change it. It’s not only part of your whole entire being, but it flows through every tiny piece of you, touching everything you are and always have been. You can…
Three Poems by Jim Daniels

Suspension Quiet cinder of shame, until a young boy finds the willto hit back. Except. Suspended from school, that’s what.They don’t care who or how. Accept. He wants a Tums to help him sleep—he likes its soft soundtaste. The photo of courage has no negative, cannot bereproduced like a trick from an old comic book.…
Poetry: “Colombo” by Senie Priti

Morning. I eat rice and curry, so hot it brings tears to my eyes. This is Sri Lanka, I think. I take a tuktuk to the central station. Bustling. Colours and sounds and smells I don’t recognise. The light thick and smoky. And hot. So fucking hot. Everyone’s about the hustle. Cues in the street…
Love Songs for a Lost Continent, Anita Felicelli’s debut collection, reviewed by Mahnoor Khan

Anita Felicelli’s Love Songs for a Lost Continent is a collection of stories that is deeply-rooted in everyday labors of identity as we go through life—as friends, parents, lovers, and individuals. They are stories of people who are not looking to be heroes but are characters who find themselves facing their worst. As the author…
“Rock Creek: A Pastoral,” flash fiction by Jarrod Campbell

Living two miles from the epicenter of a useless and oppressive government but still well within what could potentially be ground zero can wear anybody down, but only if they let it happen. For fifteen years I’ve seen the power ebb and flow from weak blue tides to the present deadly red tide and miraculously…
Two Poems by Rusty Barnes

Date Night at Fuddruckers, Saugus MAYear of Our Lord, 2018 we have no imagination,my wife and I,so we end up here, nestled alongside Route 1,causeway to the NorthShore. on the menuthe biggest effing burgerthey have a pound of meat dressedout in cheese,with a great stack of onion. my wife in all things (almost)moderates herself with…
Three Poems by Christopher Kennedy

I Have Approximated Lightning There is the ghost and then the ghost’s shadow. By ghost, I mean memory. By shadow, I mean nothing. Or God. Or feral animals. I could mean father or mother, but I have decided that ghosts are preferable to parents, that feral animals are preferable to absent gods. I grin to…
Three Poems by Christina Olson

Citing Budgetary Concerns, the Hurricane Name Retirement Center Closes Its Doors Listen: they’ve closed the hurricane name retirement center. They cited Medicare, increased life spans—but really, everything changed after Katrina checked in. When she blew through the halls, water sprung from the ceilings. When she sprawled on the couch for Wheel of Fortune, everyone evacuated.…
Clues from the Animal Kingdom, Christopher Kennedy’s fifth poetry collection, reviewed by Jonah Davis

When the life we are born into isolates us, leaves us in an inescapable malaise, when ‘pain is the only feeling’ and we’re forced to watch time pass by through the eyes of an animal—where do we go? To religion? Family? Relationships? No. Here there are no gods, here family is but an empty word…